Abortion clinics close immediately, scramble to move up appointments as Roe ends
Melissa Grant was wrapping up a staff meeting on Friday when her phone and other employees’ phones lit up with the news alert: The Supreme Court had overturned
Melissa Grant was wrapping up a staff meeting on Friday when her phone and other employees’ phones lit up with the news alert: The Supreme Court had overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.
The chief operations officer of Carafem, an abortion provider with clinics in Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois and Washington, D.C., Grant said that she and her team from across the country were on a call and had just finished discussing the potential decision when the news broke.
“On the one hand it was nice we were all together,” she said. “But on the other, you can’t prepare for news like that. I’ve been in this field for over 30 years now, and this is a day I never thought I would see happen.”
The court's 5-4 ruling to overturn Roe had a cataclysmic effect. It triggered laws tied to the decision in 13 states that effectively banned or limited abortion immediately or in the coming weeks. Providers were left to scramble, consult with lawyers and even close their doors while doctors, patients and activists contended with the panic and heartbreak of the moment.
Abortion clinics in states like Texas and Louisiana have shuttered as a result of the decision — the closest provider to New Orleans is now in Illinois — and the future of the abortion rights movement and those seeking the procedure is more than fuzzy in some states, particularly the South and Midwest.
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